Laundry machines



April 22, 1969 A. w. SWAIN LAUNDRY MACHINES Sheet of3 Filed July 11,1967 April 22, 1969 A. w. SWAIN 3,439,847

LAUNDRY MACHINES Filed July 11, 1967 Sheet 2 of s April 22, 1969 A. W]SWAIN 3,439,847

LAUNDRY MACHINES Filed July 11, 1967 Sheet 3 of 3 United States Patent3,439,847 LAUNDRY MACHINES Anthony W. Swain, Clydesdale, College Road,Buxton, Derbyshire, England Filed July 11, 1967, Ser. No. 652,569 Claimspriority, application Great Britain, July 20, 1966,

32,518/66; Oct. 11, 1966, 45,369/66 Int. Cl. A4111 /00 U.S. Cl. 22370 12Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A steam pressing machine for garmentswhich can be adjusted to suit garments of different sizes in that thegarment during pressing is supported at its top end on a head piece andon its bottom end is attached a base. The head piece and base areadjustable in height simultaneously and their Weights arecounterbalanced one against the other to facilitate adjustment. The baseand head piece move in opposite directions during adjustment.

This invention relates generally to a machine used in connection withthe laundering and manufacture of garments of clothing and moreparticularly to a machine for the steam pressing of garments.

At present, there are machines for steam pressing jackets and othermachines for pressing coats. Also, special sized machines must be madefor pressing childrens garments.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a machine whichmay be adjusted to suit different sized garments.

Also, in the known machine, the garment to be pressed is wrapped roundan envelope or bag which is inflated when filled with steam and so fillsup the garment being pressed. This method has resulted in creasesappearing across the pressed garment.

Therefore, it is an ancillary object of this invention to provide amachine which may press garments without said creases appearing.

According to the present invention, there is provided a machineparticularly but not exclusively for the steam pressing of garmentsincluding a head-piece which is adapted to support the top of a garment,and a base to which the bottom of the garment may be attached, said baseand head-piece being inter-connected by means so that their weights arecounter-balanced, and each being movable upwards and downwards, saidmeans being such that when the base is moved in one direction, theheadpiece is simultaneously moved in the other direction for adjustmentto suit a particular length of garment.

The base preferably comprises a table, and the machine includes a framewhich passes through the table and the table is slidable thereon.

Preferably, the head-piece is also slidable on said frame. Preferably,the means for counter-balancing comprises a length of flexible memberwhich passes over a support on the frame, and the ends of the flexiblemember are operatively connected to the head-piece and baserespectively.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention will now be described, byway of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a machine embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a part of the machine illustrated inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the machine part illustrated in FIG. 2; and

3,439,847 Patented Apr. 22, 1969 "ice FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged viewsof cloth clamps used in the machine of FIGS. 1 and 2.

Referring to the drawings, and firstly to FIG. 1, a machine for steampressing clothes comprises a head-piece 10 which includes a fibre glassmoulding to simulate shoulders and a base which is a flat,elliptical-shaped table 12. The head-piece 10 and table 12 are supportedas shown in FIG. 1 by an openwork frame indicated diagrammatically by14. The frame 14 is elongated and extends vertically from a steamchamber 16 fed from a live steam pipe 18. Steam is ejected from thechamber 16 through a distributor nozzle 20 and between the table 12 andthe steam chamber 16. Surrounding the nozzle and the lower end of theframe is a flexible bellows 22, to ensure that the steam passes upwardlyto the garment on the machine whatever may be the position of the tablerelative to the steam chamber 16. The frame 14 passes through a centralaperture in the table 12, through which aperture the steam also passes.

The machine is adjustable to suit different sized garments as thehead-piece 10 and the table 12 to which the bottom of the garment isattached are movable in opposite directions and their weights arecounter-balanced against each other. The table is shown in dotted linesin a low position for coats. When it is moved downwards in the directionof arrow 13 the head-piece 10 moves upwards.

This counter-balancing is achieved by the means illustrated in detail inFIGS. 2 and 3. The table 12 and head piece 10 are interconnected by alength of flexible member of which one end is attached to the table andthe other to the head piece 10. In the example the length of flexiblemember is a length of belt of the type having teeth which providepositive engagement with the mating teeth of a sprocket or gear. One endof the belt 100 is connected to a moulding sub-frame 28 (FIG. 1) theother end to a table sub-frame 30. The sub-frames 28 and 30 areslideable on the frame 14 which consists of vertical parallel rods 29extending from the chamber 16 up through the hole in the table 12 and across brace 31.

The timing belt 100 passes over a sprocket 101 which is drivinglyconnected to and co-axial with an annulus 102. The sprocket 101 andannulus are unitarily rotatable on a central shaft 103 mounted on crossbrace 31 of frame 14. A disc 104 is disposed within the annulus 102, thediameter of the disc 104 being only slightly smaller than the innerdiameter of the annulus 102. The disc 104 has an eccentric bore and islocated by an eccentric 105 mounted on shaft 103. In the position shownin FIG. 2, the sprocket 101 and annulus 102 can rotate freely as thetable and head piece 10 are moved up and down.

When the table 12 and headpiece 10 are in the desired position the disc104 is first of all rotated slightly on the eccentric 105 and then thedisc jams on the annulus 102 and then pulls the whole assembly, sprocket101, annulus 102 and shaft 103 round in the direction of the arrow 106.This slight movement is suflicient to tension longitudinally the garmentbeing pressed.

The control of the tension in the garment is by manipulation of a lever107 and a linkage system 108, 109, 110, the link 109 passing up throughthe table 12. The link 110 is an arm which is disposed horizontally andis connected to the disc 104 at two points 111, 112, to ensure apositive turning movement of the disc 104.

The central shaft 103 is spring loaded by a tension spring 113 connectedto an arm 114 fast with the shaft 103. The position of the arm is fixedby an adjustable stop 115 which is a screw in a stationary bracket 116.Finally, the belt 100 has a spring guide 117 which holds it inengagement with the sprocket 101.

The head piece 10 is for supporting the top of the garment beingpressed, and the bottom of the garment is attached to the table 12 bymeans of clamps 32 (see FIG.

5) and tensioning supports 34 (FIG. 4). The tensioning supports 34 areslidable along the table 12 in the direction of arrows 36 to suitgarments of different sized bottoms. The supports engage the inside ofthe garments as shown in FIG. 4 and the engaging face is of syntheticresinous foam material, or other suitable material to provide a lightfrictional grip on the garment. The support 34 comprises basically aboss 119 slidable on a rod 120 which lies parallel and under a slot 121in the table 12. Attached to the boss 119 is a lever 121A which passesthrough the base slot 121 and a support plate 122 which is engaged bythe garment 123 as shown.

The bore of the boss has a slight taper 124 at each end but at oppositesides as regards the end of the bore.

Each clamp 32, as shown in FIG. 5, comprises an overcentre linkagecomprising a bottom link 50 of which the ends are attached to the table12, a toggle mechanism comprising a long link 51 and two short links 52and the mechanism is completed by a substantially vertical invertedL-shaped link 53. Pivotally attached to the link 53 is a clamping plate54, the point of pivotal attachment to said link 53 being at 55 which isabove the central plane of the plate 54. Integral with the link 51 is anoperator lever 55A.

In a position shown in the drawing, the clamp is in the engaged positionwith the pad 56 attached to the table 12 and in order to release theclamp, the lever 55A is pivoted anti-clockwise as shown in dotted linesand the pair of links 51, 52 of the toggle mechanism go over-centre andthereby release the clamp.

This clamping and releasing of the garment about the frame 14 iseflicient and simple and by virtue of the pivot 55 being located abovethe central plane of the plate 54, the bottom of the plate can be movedclear of the frame when the clamp is being moved to the clampingposition. The clamping face of plate 54 is a layer of friction materialsuch as synthetic foam material to provide a frictional grip on thegarment. The pad 56 may also have this frictional material thereon.

In pressing a garment on the machine, say a jacket, the machine tableand moulding are moved to the required position and the jacket issupported by the moulding 10 and draped round the frame 14. The bottomof the jacket is engaged by supports 34 and gripped by clamps 32 and isthereby attached to the table 12. When the garment has been sopositioned on the machine, the lever 107 is pivoted anti-clockwise inFIG. 1 and this in turn causes the whole assembly comprising shaft 103,sprocket 101, annulus 102 and disc 105, as previously described, torotate about the axis of shaft 103. This causes the right hand reach ofthe belt 100 to move upwards and the left hand to move downwards; thusthe head piece tends to move upwards and the table downwards; thiscauses the garment to be tensioned and the amount of tension depends howfar the lever 107 is pivoted to the left in FIG. 1. The amount oftension depends upon the fabric of the garment being pressed and when inposition, the lever 107 can be hold there by slipping the lever into theappropriate one of a plurality of retainer slots 19.

When the pressing has been completed the lever 107 is positioned to theinitial position, and the disc 104 returns to the initial position shownin FIG. 1 in which the sprocket 101 and annulus 102 can be freelyrotated by movements of the table and head piece. The arm 114 stopsreturn motion before return motion of the disc 104 so that the disc 104becomes freed from the annulus 102.

Modifications of the above-described assembly may be made, for example,other linkages may be used to actuate the disc 104.

When the garment is first passed over the plate 122 of each support andthe support is pulled to the left as shown in FIG. 4. The plate 122engages the garment 123- and pulls it to the left. However, by reactionthe garment 123 tends to pull the support to the right, but is preventedfrom doing so when the operator releases the handle of the support, asthis reaction rocks the support slightly and the ridges at 125 and 126,where the tapers 124 meet the bore, engage the rod and prevent slidingof the support to the right.

In order to release the support, the support is rocked slightlyanticlockwise to release the ridges 125, 126 from the rod so that it canbe pushed to the right to release the garment. Thus, the support locksautomatically in the position in which it is set, a very favourablefeature as the operation can be carried out very quickly. The rod ispreferably serrated or roughened to further assist the locking action.

As steam is involved, it is desirable to construct the apparatus of anon-rustable material, although practically any material would besuitable. Also, the apparatus may be constructed with rounded offcorners to prevent catching on the garment being pressed.

The basic frame 14 and sub frames 28, 30 may, of course, be alteredsubstantially without departing from the scope of the invention, andvarious baffle plates may be incorporated for the prevention of excesssteam leakage.

The distance between the head piece 10 and table 12 is infinitelyvariable and, therefore, almost any garment may be pressed on themachine.

Because of the counter-balancing, manipulation of the table and mouldingrequires very little physical effort, a considerable advantage in anindustry where most machine operators are women.

It is intended that there be interchangeable mouldings to suit differentshapes and sizes of garments, and each may be provided with slidingextensions, for example, such as indicated generally by 44 in FIG. 1.

Also shown in FIG. 1 is a holding arm 46 with a holding pad 48. The arm46 is attached to the moulding 10 and can be pivoted downwards so thatthe pad 48 will hold jacket lapels during pressing.

Also, the support 16 is in upper and lower parts, the upper part beingrotatable on the lower part. The machine is mounted on the upper partand so can be rotated as indicated by arrow 49 in FIG. 1.

The apparatus may be readily modified for pressing ladies skirts. Themoulding is removed and a pair of opposed, spring loaded,semi-elliptical members are positioned in its place, which members areembraced by the skirt waist band during pressing. Any other suitablemeans may be used for engagement by the waist band.

What I claim is:

1. A machine for the steam pressing of garments including a head piecewhich is adapted to support the top of a garment, a base having meansfor engaging the bottom of the garment and counterbalancing meansinterconnecting said base and head piece so that their weights arecounter-balanced, and each being movable upwards and downwards, saidcounterbalancing means being such that when the base is moved in onedirection, the head piece is simultaneously moved in the other directionfor adjustment to suit a particular length of garment.

2. A machine according to claim 1, including an upright frame andwherein the base comprises a table slideable on said upright frame,which frame passes through an aperture in the table.

3. A machine according to claim 2, wherein the headpiece is slideable onsaid frame.

4. A machine according to claim 3, wherein the counterbalancing meanscomprises a support on the frame and a length of flexible member whichpasses over said support, the ends of the member being respectivelyoperatively connected to the head piece and the table.

5. A machine according to claim 4, wherein the length of flexible memberis a length of toothed belt and the support is a sprocket rotatable onsaid frame.

6. A machine according to claim 5, wherein there is a control linkagefor manually turning the sprocket in a direction to cause the head pieceto move upwards and the table to move downwards whereby when there is agarment at the machine it may be tensioned longitudinally by having theweight of the table hanging on the garment bottom.

7. A machine according to claim 6, including a shaft on which thesprocket is rotatable, an annulus rigidly connected to said sprocket,and a disc mounted within the annulus and on an eccentric rigid withsaid shaft, the linkage being connected to said disc so that uponoperation of the linkage the disc firstly rotates on the eccentric to alimited extent, then locks with the annulus and then causes rotation ofthe annulus, sprocket and shaft as a unit to raise the head piece and solower the base.

8. A machine according to claim 7, wherein the shaft has a stop arm andthere is a stop against which the arm can abut to limit its rotation inthe direction which would cause raising of the base and lowering ofthehead piece.

9. A machine according to claim 7, wherein there is a spring connectedbetween the stop arm and the frame urging said arm to abut said stop.

10. A garment pressing machine according to claim 1, wherein the meansfor engaging the bottom of the garment 6 include members arranged on thebase to clamp the bottom of the garment and cause the garment to form ahollow enclosure.

11. A garment pressing machine according to claim 10, wherein the meansfor engaging the bottom of the garment further include pads slidablymounted on the base and adapted to engage the interior of the garment toform a taut garment wall around the enclosure.

12. A garment pressing machine according to claim 11, further includingmeans for introducing steam into the interior of the hollow enclosure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1914 Hamburger 22368 11/1965Paris 223-70

